[29] land? He would have been seven times more epicure and atheist than he was; for as the temporal sword is to be drawn with great circumspection in cases of religion, so it is a thing monstrous to put it into the hands of the common people; let that be left unto the [30] Anabaptists and other furies. It was great blasphemy when the devil said, "I will ascend and be like the Highest;" but it is greater blasphemy to personate

street assassinated by the Jesuits :-black sons of the scarlet woman, murderous to soul and to body. The History of Europe at that period, meant essentially the struggle of Protestantism against Catholicism-a broader form of that same struggle of devout Puritanism against dignified Ceremonialism, which forms [formed] the History of England then. Henry the Fourth of France, so long as he lived, was still to be regarded as the Head of Protestantism; Spain, bound up with the Austrian Empire, as that of Catholicism."

[29.] Epicure: Epicurean—a disciple of Epicurus.

Anabaptists: These were a fanatical sect of German peasants in the sixteenth century, who partly from erroneous religious opinions, and partly from the severe oppressions they had experienced, rose against the government that had oppressed them; and endeavored to propagate their doctrines by force of arms, under the guidance of Munzer, Stubner, and others. These in 1525, at the head of a large army, declared war against all laws, governments and magistrates, under the pretence that Christ was now to take the reins of government into his own hands; but the insurgents were routed and dispersed by the Elector of Saxony.

[30.] When the devil said, 'I will,' &c.: reference being made to Isaiah 14: 14. Bacon seems hardly to be justified in ascribing this speech to the devil. It is attributed in the Bible to Lucifer, a name by which the prophet evidently designates the defeated king of Babylon, who, like Lucifer (or Satan) had sustained a terrible fall from a state of great elevation and glory. Murdering: It should have been the murder of, to correspond with the nouns in the two following phrases.

God, and bring him in saying: "I will descend, and be like the prince of darkness;" and what is it better, to make the cause of religion to descend to the cruel and execrable actions of murdering princes, butchery of people, and subversion of states and governments? Surely this is to bring down the Holy Ghost, [31] instead of the likeness of a dove, in the shape of a vulture or raven; and to set out of the bark of a Christian church, a flag of a bark of pirates and assassins; therefore it is most necessary that the church by doctrine and decree, princes by their sword, and all learnings, both Christian and moral, as by their Mercury rod, do damn, and send to hell forever, those facts and opinions tending to support the same, as hath been already in good part done. Surely in councils of religion [32]

:

[31.] Instead of, &c.: This is not well expressed. Better, 'not in the likeness of a dove, but in the shape,' &c. To set to raise, or display. The word 'assassins' should be followed by a period. All learnings: all works of learning. Mercury rod: rod or wand of Mercury, alluding to the heathen God, according to the fable, who, by his rod (caduceus), conducted departed spirits to the lower world of the dead. He is introduced here in connection with learning, as he was, in Pagan mythology, the god of speech and of eloquence-the inventor indeed of letters; so that learned men (by their works) are consistently required to use the rod of Mercury to execute the design in view. The same: The reference being to things expressed at some distance above, viz.: the cruel and sanguinary acts denounced, perspicuity required that these should have been mentioned again. In good part: Give an equi

valent phrase.

[32.] Would: It will be observed that Bacon frequently, as

here, uses would where modern usage requires should.

Ira, &c.: James 1: 20.

the justice of God.'

'The wrath of man does not satisfy Which: This pronoun in Bacon's

time, referred to persons as well as things. Is it so now?

that counsel of the apostle would be prefixed, "Ira hominis non implet justitiam Dei:" and it was a notable observation of a wise father, and no less ingenuously confessed, that those which held and persuaded pressure of consciences, were commonly interested therein themselves for their own ends.

Persuaded: inculcated by argument. In this sense, however, the word is but rarely used. Pressure of consciences: the use of force, to compel men to speak or act in violation of truth, and of a sense of duty.

1. In reviewing this and other Essays of Bacon, can we suppose that he wrote for the people, or for the learned only?

2. Can we in candor pronounce him an accurate, perspicuous and finished writer?

3. Has not English style undergone a vast improvement since his day?

4. For what then are these Essays so greatly admired, and what additional reason may be urged for the careful study of them? Consult the 'Critical Estimates.'

5. It will be a profitable exercise to re-write this Essay, in a style and arrangement adapted to please the popular and cultivated taste of the present day.

6. What is 'the true bond of Christian unity' in the view of the sacred writers? Whately's remarks on Pagan religions in contrast with Christianity? Also, upon the causes that have obstructed the progress of the Reformation. 7. Give an account of Rabelais, and of his writings. What was the Morrisdance?

8. The importance of words in influencing thought? Whately's strictures upon Bacon's views as to the province of the civil magistrate in matters of religion?

9. The story of Iphigenia? The massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day? The Gunpowder Plot? The Anabaptists? The Caduceus of Mercury?

10. Point out the obsolete words or phrases; or such as have undergone a change of signification since these Essays were written

11. Point out any sentences that would be improved by division into two or more. Examine also, the connectives used, and decide upon their necessity and accuracy.

12. It would be a profitable exercise to enter upon a critical examination of certain sentences, in this and the other Essays, that may be assigned; and to present a written criticism upon their beauties, or faults, and to suggest changes of form or expression that may be deemed improvements, taking as a model, the criticisms of Dr. Blair on Addison and other writers.

ESSAY IV.

REVENGE.

REVENGE is a kind of wild justice, which the [1] more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out for as for the first wrong, it doth but offend the

[1.] Revenge: the disposition to inflict, or the act of inflicting, an injury, in a malignant spirit, in return for an injury received. Runs to This is eminently an English idiom [a preposition at the end of a sentence], and nothing but prejudice arising from misapplied analogy with the Southern languages, and the propensity to make style more formal and less idiomatic, could ever have led any one to suppose this construction to be wrong. The false fastidiousness which shuns a short particle at the end of a sentence, is fatal often to a force which belongs to the language with its primal character. The superiority of the idiom I am referring to could be proved beyond question by examples of the best writing in all the eras of the language. Lord Bacon says, "Houses are built to live in, and not to look on " [and again'in the first sentence of this Essay]. Any attempt to transpose these separable prepositions would destroy the strength and the terseness of the sentences. Even a stronger example occurs in a passage of Dr. Donne, a contemporary of Bacon's: "Hath God a name to swear by?.... Hath God a name to curse by? Hath God a name to blaspheme by? and hath God no name to pray by?" Reid's Eng. Lit., Lect. III, pp. 102, 103. For as, &c.: Amend this second member by striking out superfluous words. Offend the law: An antiquated sense of offend is, to violate or transgress, which meets the present case; unless we read the sentence more rhetorically, and regard it as an instance of Personification, and thus use the word in its ordinary sense. In his Antitheta Bacon writes: 'Qui vim rependit, legem tantum violat, non hominem'-i. e. 'he who repays violence, offends against the law only; not against the individual.' What is revenge compared to in this sentence?

law, but the revenge of that wrong putteth the law out [2] of office. Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon; and Solomon, I am sure, saith, "It is the glory of a man to pass [3] by an offence." That which is past and gone is irrecoverable, and wise men have enough to do with things present and to come; therefore they do but trifle with themselves, that labour in past matters. [4] There is no man doth a wrong for the wrong's sake, but thereby to purchase himself profit, or plea

[2.] Divide this sentence into two, omitting the connective, as unnecessary. Taking revenge, &c.: Bacon, in speaking of the duty, and of the difficulty, of forgiving injuries, might have remarked that some of the things hardest to forgive are not what any one would consider injuries (i. e. wrongs) at all. Many would reprobate the use, in such a case, of the word forgive. And the word ought not to be insisted on, though that most intelligent woman, Miss Elizabeth Smith, says that 'a woman has need of extraordinary gentleness and modesty to be forgiven for possessing superior ability and learning.' She would probably have found this true even now, to a certain degree; though less than in her time. But, not to insist on a word, say instead of 'forgive,' that it is hard to 'judge fairly of' and to 'feel kindly towards.'

Again, with some minds of a baser nature, there is a difficulty, proverbially, in forgiving those whom one is conscious of having injured; and, again, those (especially if equals or inferiors) who have done very great and important services, beyond what can ever receive an adequate return.-Whately. Even with his enemy: Paraphrase this expression. It is, &c.: Prov. 19: 11.

[3.] This sentence admits of a favorable division into two. Where can the division be most effectively made?

[4.] Change the form of this sentence, to make it more concise and terse. What example of ellipsis does it contain?